The use of electrical resistance heaters to heat air or other fluids is well known in the prior art. For clothes dryers, it is common to use helical coils of resistance wire to provide the heated air for drying purposes. FIGS. 12 and 13 show a prior art clothes dryer 100 with a heater duct 101, which is normally vertically aligned with respect to the dryer drum axis, and a heater 103, which is generally horizontally aligned with the dryer drum axis. The heater duct 101 has an opening 105, which interfaces with an opening in the dryer drum to supply heater air. The other end of the heater duct has another opening 107 that receives an end of the heater 103. Although not shown, there is also structure to support the heater 103, a heat shield and the necessary fasteners, etc. to connect the components together. These types of heaters are generally the FIG. 8 helical coil type, which includes an upper and lower coil. This construction is well known in the art and a further description thereof is not needed.
Electrical resistance heaters employing ribbons for heating instead of wires is also known.
While a number of different heater configurations have been proposed for clothes dryers, there are still problems in terms of heater short circuiting, excessive temperatures of the heater causing problems for materials of construction and the need to reduce costs.
The present invention responds to these needs by providing an electric resistance ribbon heater that operates at lower temperature, is lower in cost, provides an improved way to turn the heater ribbon, and provides a better application than the current heater configurations for clothes dryers.